my hair looks nothing like that !

I already have the drunken part down. ;)


It all depends how you train and the art like you said, studying Judo was helpful in competitive fighting within the first few weeks for me. Tae Kwan Do taught me some flashy kicks but not much else. :)

Despite what the stick TKD gets i did get a lot from it when i went on to train in full contact. I definally had an improved sense of timing and distance with is obviously needed for striking and also i brought my kicking ability with me too. Even though most of my kicks look more like Muai Thai than TKD i did develop speed and power from the TMA.

Yep, for a little over 2 years some time back - There's not too many places that do MTB over here, and I don't want to do kickboxing (compare the two, you will understand), so I've let it go, but it was great, and I've never been fitter or more confident than I was then - It teaches you how to, well, end a fight pretty quickly in your favour, and is an excellent fitness regime. Should I find a place, I'll be doing it again for sure...'cept having been a few years, I'll probably hit the gym a few times first.

Ha, less flash, more bash.
Simple, easy to learn moves.
It's not really a thing of grace, it's a thing of power.
You learn, in a straight forward way how to do maximum damage to an opponent in a short amount of time.
This style worked for me, not the "dancing around" type guy.

To be worn out, and sore. The instructors work hard on your "conditioning" and "strengthening" which can initially take quite a toll if you've not done it before. They push you more than in any other martial art - their goal, to basically make you a pain resistant offensive machine - really not an easy process, if it's anything like where I studied, the first 3 months (at 3-4 2 hour sessions a week) will be difficult. But seriously, don't give it up, I thought about dropping it, I was aching...but you get used to it, and get over it.
You can expect to get fit, to become flexible, and to build a lot of muscle.
You can expect your overall wellbeing and confidence to soar.
You can expect that if you currently attend a gym, you won't need to anymore.
You can expect stress relief.
Oh, and you can expect to be disqualified from kickboxing tournys should you try to attend them - it's very hard to participate when you, well, can't use your regular repertoire.

I think it's a very trying process, one good thing is (this pisses me off in other MA's) no "form" or "kata" or any of that. You stretch and warm up, then you start learning practical, powerful, and fast ways to eliminate your opponent...and seriously, unless you're up against a proffessional, come a year, a year and a half, you'll pretty much be able to hold your own against the majority.

I wish you the best of luck, and look forward to any updates.

Where are you at? As the European style/Dutch kick boxing isn't million miles away from from Muai Thai. No Elbows/Knees but they do use low kicks. If I wantn't to do MT and all i could find is this , i'd do it..

Ah there is a few nice ones - spinning elbow, jumping knee and the (ouch) jumping elbow.

Yeah, but when all is said and done, it's just a lot (IMO) more straightforward and less intricate than a lot of MA I've tried, which is what drew me to it in the first place. The addition of knees and elbows in heavy useage is pretty cool though, yeah...haven't had many an occasion to knee someone really, but I never had any idea quite how effective a step-in elbow followthrough from a cross could be...felt pretty terrible, but yeah, it works.

I think the thing is with MT, is that it's something pretty much everyone can do, and while I think that it doesn't hurt to be relatively stocky, pretty much everyone of any body type can get whipped into shape, and learn with relative ease by comparison. Practicality, is what it's all about.

Sydney, Australia.
Yeah, I've seen what you're talking about and that's what all the tournys here are unless you go right up to the top and get into thai rules matches...never really got into it quite that much, but went in against a few kickboxers, and when you're not throwing out everything you can, well, to me, it just feels like too much of a disadvantage, and/or holding back...which, in a fight, competition or otherwise, just feels unnatural.
Couldn't get into kickboxing...just because MTB seemed to suit me so well, regardless of the KB being a pretty good fitness and defense routine, it seems like stepping down - elbows and knees, not only work your body out more, but they're damn near devastating.

Yup thats why I find it best to take the Muai Thai guys to the ground :-)

Yeah.... I know people mentioned the elbow/knee strikes, but what people don't mention is that they have some brutal kicks as well. I'm sure you've all seen the video of fight, and one guys does this low kick into the otherguys shin, and snaps it, and the guy falls, while his shin folds in on itself? I'm pretty sure that was a trunk whip, which is a low kick. My reasoning for this is the movement of the hips. ANyways that should show you just how powerful a MT kick can be. And its not really known for its kicks, thats more TKD.

I have never heard of it

Ever heard of the movies Ang Bak, and The Protector? Those are both Muay Thai movies.